He said: “I feel very sorry for her because she did it to fund a lifestyle that she wanted herself and her family to live, and until this happened she was not just a colleague, but a friend.”

Mother-of-three Cummins, 56, was jailed for three years after admitting four counts of fraud and one of theft at Reading Crown Court in February last year.

Last Wednesday she appeared before the same court as Judge Ian Grainger ordered her to pay back £139,309.36 of the £417,882.33 she stole from Berings Heating Supplies Ltd.

She spent much of the hearing with her head in her hands or staring anxiously at the floor as she was told to make the repayment in six months or spend a further two years and three months inside.

Cummins took the money between 2007 and 2010 during a seven-year spell working as a bookkeeper for the company, then trading as Northcourt Garage in Whitley and run by Mr Neale.

After Wednesday’s hearing, he said: “I am glad to be getting some of the money back.

“I have been pragmatic about it.

“Yes, it’s an awful lot of money, but the crime was discovered and she has been sentenced and is in prison and been told to pay it back.

“When I spoke to police on Thursday afternoon they thought I might not get all of it back straight away, but they were confident a good quantity of it would be heading my way in six months.”

At Cummins’ sentencing the court heard how she used the cash to fund a lavish lifestyle, including holidays to Spain and improvement works on her family home in McCarthy Way, Finchampstead.

She told police she had started to defraud the cash after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Her husband had been made redundant and they were struggling to pay their mortgage.

Mr Neale added: “I cannot say I would be overly pleased to see her now, and she has to take the consequences and live with what she had done.

“I was disapponted to think I had really been betrayed and angry as to why someone could do this, but at the end of the day I have to let it go.

“I have a family and do not wish to get into a personal rank with anybody that might upset the rest of my life.”

On Wednesday the court heard that Cummins had accepted the amount she had to pay back, but was concerned how she would recoup the cash, having made several ‘tainted gifts’ with the money, including a car for her daughter and paying off her husband’s credit cards.

Judge Grainger conceded his hands were tied as he had given Cummins the maximum time to pay back the money, but she could make futher representations at a later date if necessary.

Following the hearing, Jennifer Bailey, financial investigator for Thames Valley Police, said: “At long last we have been able to resolve this case and get back this money for the victim whose business was almost destroyed by her offending.

“It is very satifying to know that she is now being forced to pay that money back, and having that prison sentence hanging over her will hopefully motivate her to actually get that done.

“It is still only a fraction of what she took, but it’s only right that we take back what we can.”